White Sand Beaches
I got a question from Jane who, while reading Marker Bed, became intrigued by the reference to quartz sand on page 29 of the print versions. (By the way, if you have not yet...
Category: Minerals
Paleontology: How the Earth Makes a Fossil
We’ve spent a couple recent posts discussing geologic time and the two methods earth scientists use to describe and measure it. We started with a general introduction to earthtime and absolute age dating (Intro...
Intro to Geologic Time
One thing about time is that it keeps moving—always into the future and always in polar opposite, yet mutually supportive rhythms: relative and absolute. Relative time is agreeably flexible and adapts itself to the...
Yes, Virginia, Lead IS Toxic
This is a follow-up to earlier posts regarding the toxicity of lead, and is in response to an 8 July 2025 article on the Associated Press website titled “A Kindergarten in China Added Lead...
Minerals and Economic Warfare, Part 2
Click here for Minerals and Economic Warfare, Part 1 It was early in the 1980s and Central Africa was again in turmoil. Very little of what transpired made it into the homes of the...
Lead and Silver Mining
Too full of a day, so this one will be a very short follow-up to an earlier post about lead in water pipes and cognitive decline. The basis of the earlier post had to...
Minerals and Economic Warfare, Part 1
The opening round… Busy day (4 December 2024) and this one will be real short — look upon it as a teaser of a more detailed post as this developing story continues to spiral...
Lead in our water and cognitive decline
It’s funny how perceptions and interpretations can change over time. Take the fall of the Roman Empire as an example. When I was in school a hundred years ago, one of the reasons I...
Deep Sea Mining
I read an interesting article in Mother Jones (7/16/23) about mining on the deep-sea floor (aka the abyssal plain) for metallic nodules. This follows up on another article on the same site that discusses...
E-waste and rational resource management
How many of you still have your original cellphone? Not your flip-phone, I’m talking about the brick you had before that. But hey, what did happen to your first flip-phone? Or your first beeper...
